This invention relates to the use of remote detection methods to provide a repository of information which is remotely accessible for computerized management, monitoring and control of a condition; and in particular to the use of remote detection systems to provide a database that is accessible over a computer network such as the internet for use in pest monitoring, management and control.
The present invention addresses problems existing in the pest control industry with respect to pest detection, monitoring, management and control. Integrated pest management (xe2x80x9cIPMxe2x80x9d) involves the coordinated use of pest and environmental information with available pest control methods to prevent unacceptable levels of pest damage by the most economical means and with the least possible hazard to people, property and the environment.
Conventional pest management typically consists of two separate steps: detection and preventative and corrective treatment. Detection involves the physical inspection of a facility for pests. If activity is spotted, the area is treated with pesticides to control the insect population. This type of monitoring system requires regular examination of the premises by a technician in order to determine the amount of pest activity. The greatest expense a pest control facility faces is the labor involved with the constant inspection of all customer locations. Approximately 75 percent of a technician""s time is spent performing on site inspections. Pest management services historically have been curative treatments that require little extended service. More recently they have become and in some cases are becoming longer term monitoring and preventative services. The difficulty in the industry has been proving these services as a value to the customer for the long term. The industry can be divided into three different types of services, some companies provide all three services, while others only one or two of them. These include commercial integrated pest management (xe2x80x9cIPMxe2x80x9d), termite monitoring, and residential treatments. Each adheres to the more recent trend towards long term monitoring and preventative services.
Commercial IPM is the regular monitoring, inspection, and treatment of commercial facilities for existing and potential pest problems that could be damaging to the business of the customer. This includes both multi-location and single location businesses, including food management businesses, schools, hospitals, child and elderly care facilities, warehouses, etc. Not only are pest problems damaging to these operations, but the extensive use of chemicals to treat these problems can be damaging as well. In order to keep the level of chemical usage to a minimum, commercial IPM practices include regular inspections to identify problems before they become damaging and using mechanical trapping devices, natural predators (e.g., insects that eat other insects), insect growth regulators, mating disruption substances (pheromones), and if necessary, chemical pesticides. The problem with Commercial IPM services is that it can be expensive for a pest control operator to provide since it inherently requires a high level of cooperation and interaction with the customer. This is a level of service that requires resources that many pest control operators cannot afford to maintain.
Termite baiting systems have become a regular practice in the pest management industry for the elimination of termites. Systems such as Dow AgroSciences"" Sentricon Colony Elimination System(trademark) are being widely used by pest control operators to eliminate termite colonies and monitor for new colonies. Termites feed on wood, which is the material that many homes are constructed with. One home can have several colonies of termites living near it, and each colony has foragers that seek food for the colony. The foragers dig through the soil until they find a food source, whereupon the rest of the colony is alerted as to the location of the food source. The tendency of homeowners to cancel service once a termite colony is eliminated creates the potential for future damaging termite problems, because the elimination of one colony near a home does not prevent other still-existing colonies from foraging for food near (and thereby finding their way into) the home at the same time.
Residential treatments include all services provided to homeowners other than termite treatments. These services can be broken down into two different types of offerings, Quarterlies and Warranties. Quarterlies are contracts that a pest control operator has with a residential customer to provide primarily exterior perimeter treatments of the home on a quarterly basis. These treatments focus on forming a barrier around the outside of the home to prevent pests from entering the structure as well as monitoring for trouble spots that may need special attention by the homeowner. Warranties are similar to insurance policies in that the pest control operators sell a guarantee for treatments covering a certain period of time. If the treatments are unsuccessful and pest damage occurs the pest control operator pays for any damage caused up to a certain dollar amount and retreats the structure. Warranties are usually treated once, when the warranty is sold. Similar to termite baiting systems, the problem with residential treatments is that it is difficult to prove the long term value of the process to the customer since they rarely see their home being serviced. At most the homeowner will receive a notification that the pest control technician was there.
In general, conventional pest detection systems only detect the presence or absence of a particular environmental factor, for example, whether a circuit is broken or not, or whether vibrations are present or not, etc. As a result, the conventional pest detection data can only serve a limited purpose in connection with pest management process. Conventional methods that monitor and control pests are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,937,555 and 4,941,356. These methods use probes that detect insect vibrations within a particular media, such as stored grain or wood substrate. Under these methods, a detection device is manually inserted into a test media, requiring the presence of a technician who monitors insect vibrations. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,069 discloses embedding wires in an edible bait block that upon structural destruction cause a detecting terminal to come into contact with a magnetic circuit, whereby an alarm is activated. Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,105 discloses block holes with an emitting element at one end and a receiving element at the other. A warning is triggered when an insect traveling through the hole breaks the wave produced by the elements. Other conventional methods remotely monitor and collect data via sensors that transmit pest related data to a data collection unit. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,005,416 and 5,285,688 disclose an apparatus that may be lowered into stored grain or corn for sensing insect vibrations. Related data is transmitted to a host computer for processing and issuing alerts. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,052,066 discloses a thin strip of conductive wire that is threaded through a sensor made of edible material. The sensor includes a break circuit that periodically or on demand communicates, via wired or wireless links, detection data to a data collection unit.
As a result of the above-described examples of shortcomings in pest detection, monitoring and management, there exists a need to gather, process and present pest related data in a more valuable way so that it can be used in a wider variety of pest management applications, and in other applications requiring the remote detection, monitoring and management of a condition, and the remote gathering, processing, storage, access, presentation and use of data relating to the monitored condition.
The present invention provides a system hardware and communication architecture along with a software data processing system to permit the novel gathering, transmission, processing, storage, access, presentation and use of data generated by remote detection, monitoring and management systems. Although the present invention is described with respect to presently preferred embodiments relating to pest detection, monitoring and management applications, it is understood that the features of the invention can be applied to any application requiring the remote detection, monitoring and management of a condition, and the remote gathering, processing, storage, access, presentation and use of data related to the monitored condition.
The invention preferably implements a sensing device for detecting the monitored condition, which can be any one or a combination of transducers, such as an optical sensor, a piezoelectric sensor, a pressure sensor, a microphone, a load cell or a camera, among other suitable transducers. The communication link over which the monitored data is communicated can be either a wired or wireless link. Examples of the wired link protocols that may be used in connection with the present invention include the TCP/IP, X-10, CeBus, and Lonworks protocols. The wireless link that can be used in an exemplary embodiment of the invention may be configured to comply with any suitable wireless application or wireless air interface protocols. Moreover, a receiver can be used for receiving a request for information from the user over the communication link. In this way, the invention can establish two-way communication for transfer of data. For example, client stations connected to the Internet can be used to receive information originating from detectors located at various remotely monitored zones. Based on a user request, the transmitter can transmit the monitored data or other sensor unit related data on demand. Alternatively, the sensor unit can be programmed to transmit such data periodically, in predefined intervals or continuously.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a detection system uses one or more sensor units to generate the data representative of the monitored condition. A data collector receives the data monitored by the detector for transmission over the communication link to a server which processes the data for storage in a database and provides access to the database for retrieving and processing the stored data for use. In this way, the system of the invention can allow the user to make various determinations in connection with the detected condition. Data associated with the determinations can be transmitted via the Internet for further remote processing or viewing.
In addition, the present invention provides an application service provider (xe2x80x9cASPxe2x80x9d) database solution for service providers and their customers, accessible over a communication network such as the Internet, to allow the gathering, processing, storage, receipt and use of information related to the services provided to the customer, including use of detection data generated from remotely monitored conditions. The types of data and functionality provided by the ASP may be customized directly by the customer or service provider, and can change depending on the particular application (or type of service) for which the system is used by that customer and/or service provider, which can result in multiple configurations existing for the same customer and/or service provider when the system is used for multiple applications. The ASP, either itself or through the service providers, hosts and maintains the core application hardware, software and databases (including security). Through a network communication link established over the Internet, customers and service providers can remotely input and access data, designate system users and access rights, and identify preferences to determine the functionality provided by the ASP. The system can be used on a multiple customer/multiple service provider basis, wherein more than one customer of each service provider can access the ASP to receive information from that service provider, or wherein each customer can access information from multiple service providers each having an account with that customer.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention relates to the remote sensing of at least one physical characteristic of one or more pests or baits or environmental conditions. For example, the physical characteristic can correspond to any one or a combination of weight, length, width, height, volume, scent, density, moisture, or acoustic characteristics of the pest or bait or environmental condition. A suitable sensing device generates an electrical signal that corresponds to a detected physical characteristic, with the generated electrical signal being applied to a processor. The processor processes the electrical signal to provide physical characteristic data. A transmitter transmits the physical characteristic data in accordance with a predefined messaging format over a communication link, such as the Internet. The physical characteristic data for pests, bait or environmental conditions can be used in a variety of pest management applications. For example, based on the physical characteristic data related to length, width, or height, the sensing system of the invention can determine the type of a detected pest. Similarly, based on physical characteristic data related to the volume, weight, or density of the bait, the system can assess the effectiveness of the bait as applied to a treated zone or region. Also, based on physical characteristic data related to the moisture level at or near the sensor, the system can determine the type of treatment that may be necessary to prevent potential pest problems. The sensor unit can also transmit data related to any one of battery life, bait weight changes, sound identification, pest activity levels, bait age, bait status, etc. An identification module can provide sensor unit identification data that can also be communicated along with associated physical characteristic data.
These and other advantages of the invention will become apparent from a perusal of the following detailed description of the presently preferred embodiments of the invention taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.